Hundred Year Storm – Hello From The Children Of Planet Earth

  • Bobby Gorman posted
  • Reviews

Hundred Year Storm

Hello From The Children Of Planet Earth - Floodgate Music

I remember a while ago when I got the self-titled EP from Hundred Year Storm, I wasn’t that impressed by it. Five out of the six songs failed to really incite any reaction in me, not so much that the songs were bad, just not that interesting. But there was one song, an 8 minute opus called Pilot’s Last Broadcast that just blew me away, and I played it constantly. So when I saw the band’s follow-up, a full length album entitled Hello From The Children Of Planet Earth, I wasn’t expecting much, but I was hoping for another song like Pilot’s Last Broadcast, and they did just that.

First, let me state that the artwork for this album is amazing. Everything seems to fit the band perfectly, so much so that you could probably picture the band’s sound just by the front cover. But, you may be asking yourself, what is the sound? It is slow, very slow, moving, atmospheric, experimental pop songs. There’s no denying the fact that the band is extremely musically driven, rather then vocally driven as there are very few vocals throughout the album. A few songs are only instrumentals with tiny snippets of vocals at key points, and while the others do feature vocals throughout the entire track, they seem to be an after thought, put to compliment the music rather than over take it. For the most part, it is the more instrumental songs that seem to really stand out, but there are still songs like Where Beauty Never Dies which is able to stick out a bit.

Sadly though, the album does drag on, and it can become boring at times if you’re hoping for something energetic, because you won’t find anything like that here.It is good background music when you have to focus and concentrate on something else, but if this is all you’re doing, it can get boring as you need to be in a certain mood to really sit down and listen to the album and appreciate it. A sort of introspective mood, where you want to just sit, close your eyes, free your mind and let yourself go – that, is what Hundred Year Storm is good for. And it is then that the mostly instrumental tracks that I talked about before are perfect. Songs like 00:01 or Beloved just blow you away, and despite the rocky start, the 9 minute Golden Record really starts to get moving as it progresses past its halfway mark.And of course, they threw on Pilot’s Last Broadcast again, a song with retells the final minutes of a pilot’s life as his plane crashes. It is so moving and powerful, it is the perfect song to just sit back to and think as it really opens up your imagination.

So no, this album won’t make many appearances in my CD player, just like their EP didn’t; but there are a few songs here that will get their fair share of play time. Because when I want to just sit down and clear my mind and forget all my worries, there’s nothing better than Pilot’s Last Broadcast or 00:01.